MAP15: The Inmost Con'dens'ed (Claustrophobia 1024)

MAP15: The Inmost Con'dens'ed is the fifteenth map of Claustrophobia 1024. It was designed by James Paddock (Jimmy), with edits by Brett Harrell (Mechadon), and uses the music track "Watz Next?" from Rise of the Triad by Lee Jackson.

This level contains a secret exit leading to.

Essentials
As the level starts there are zombiemen to your right, and some imps in the pit directly ahead; the pit also holds a megaarmor on Ultra-Violence (UV) and Nightmare (NM) skill levels, or an armor on Hurt Me Plenty (HMP) and below. Head north and east along the ledge until you reach a pair of yellow skulls, press the button between them then go back to the pit to find that the pillar holding the yellow skull key has lowered. Take the key then press the lion switch opposite it, which will open the door to the east and reveal a Hell knight, then go through the door to enter a room with a damaging blood pool; the pool holds a rocket launcher on UV and NM, or a chaingun on HMP and below.

Open the door in the north-east corner, kill a knight (on UV and NM) then press the button behind it to raise a second blood pool outside. Go back to the button that lowered the yellow key, then run north through the blood you just raised to a skull switch and press it to open some bars behind you. Step past those bars to drop down to a dirt path with some demons, then walk north until you see a staircase on your left and climb it to reach a door. Kill the imps waiting behind the door and take the super shotgun here, then continue west through another door and head down the steps - use caution on HMP or higher as cacodemons and a baron of Hell are waiting outside. Press the skull switch on the south wall, then go back to where you found the super shotgun and walk through the now-open bars here to land in the pit below. Press the button in the north-west corner to lower the nearby pole holding the blue skull key.

From the blue key, walk forward then press the blue skull button on the east wall to open a teleporter next to it; the teleporter will send you to a small alcove with a berserk pack, which you can use to punch the imps and demons (and knight on HMP or higher) that teleport in while you wait for the bars blocking your escape to drop. After escaping the trap, go round to the north-west corner of the map to collect the red skull key, which will cause two revenants to teleport in and cut off several paths through the level. Go back to the center pit and press the skull switch in the north-east corner to raise a lift, kill the imps and shotgun guys/revenants that appear then ride the lift up and walk straight forward to a supercharge, which will cause zombies/revenants to appear ahead. Head east and south, passing an arch-vile on HMP or higher, until you reach a red skull button and press it to drop the nearby bars, letting you reach the exit switch to. Watch out for a chaingunner ambush as you step past the bars.

Secret exit
See secret #2 below for information on finding the secret exit to.

Other points of interest
Stepping over the gray walls at the edges of the map will activate an unseen crusher on a voodoo doll, causing your death.

Secrets

 * 1) After opening the bars next to the super shotgun, you can run through them to land on a plinth below holding a partial invisibility. (sector 255)
 * 2) As the level starts, walk straight forward to a small window with a candle in it, then look north-east through this window to see a button on the wall. Shooting it will reveal a red button, which takes you to the secret level, next to the normal exit switch; it also raises a normally-invisible patch of floor next to that button, which triggers the secret as you walk over it. (sector 250) The button must be shot before passing through the door west of the super shotgun, otherwise it will be covered up and then cannot be reached through normal gameplay.

Bugs

 * Linedefs 1335, 1319, and 1340 are misaligned.
 * Linedefs 265, 267, 214, 251, 242, 215, 235, 229, 223, 209, 205, 196, 213, 183, and 150 are all one map unit in length, and adjacent. They are also misaligned, but due to the way they are set up (they create the illusion of a slope in their respective sectors), aligning them properly without causing glaring misalignments in the rest of the map would be nigh impossible.

Current records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on December 21, 2021.

Deathmatch
The map has deathmatch starts and additional weapons are provided in multiplayer, but due to its cramped layout and reliance on voodoo dolls for certain effects, including opening doors and lowering bars, it is not suited to deathmatch at all.

Player spawns
This level contains six spawn points:
 * 1) facing east. (thing 170)
 * 2) facing south. (thing 171)
 * 3) facing east. (thing 172)
 * 4) facing north. (thing 175)
 * 5) facing north-east. (thing 176)
 * 6) facing west. (thing 179)

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level:

Inspiration and development
This map takes a lot of inspiration from Doom II's (the use of BIGBRIK*, BSTONE*, WOODMET* and FLAT10 in its texture set) and The Plutonia Experiment's  (the tan bricks, the blood surrounding the playing field).

The author, James Paddock (Jimmy), had to submit the map to the project several times, as it was one of the buggiest maps in its early stages. Eventually, the author decided that he no longer had the time to work on the map further, so he turned over the finishing touches to Brett Harrell (Mechadon), who ironed out the final few bugs and added aesthetic touch-ups to some areas of the map (two of his most prominent edits are the addition of wall detail to sector 234, and the addition of a voodoo doll crusher which is activated if a player crosses over the 1024x1024 boundary line).

The map's name itself is a pun; the inverted commas highlight the word "dens" in the word "Condensed".